PFA defend role in Portsmouth lay-offs

The PFA have defended their role in Portsmouth's financial crisis.

The PFA have been criticised, whose rules regarding players’ contracts mean that the playing staff, whose salaries form the vast majority of the club’s £4 million monthly wage bill, have been immune from redundancy while large numbers of administrative, catering and cleaning staff have been laid off.

“Football is a very precarious profession, with an average eight-year career, and contracts have to mean what they say,” PFA chief Gordon Taylor said. “As much as I sympathise with creditors who lose out and with employees who lose their jobs, it is vital for footballers that their contracts are worth more than the paper they’re written on.”